![]() ![]() The juvenalia and sporadic feeling of cynical marketeerism are pretty much gone, replaced by a late adolescent/early adult-level treatment of such matters as forbidden love, betrayal, strategic politics and preparation for war. On first blush, “Clones” would appear to rank behind “Empire” and somewhere around the original “Star Wars” among the five series entries to date. Stimulating everything is a restoration of overall imaginative purpose, which is a good thing now that the first installment of the “Lord of the Rings” trilogy has, in the view of many, set the bar so high for cinematic fantasy and myth-making. Virtually everything that went wrong in “Menace” has been fixed, or at least improved upon, this time out: The exposition and sense of storytelling are clearer and more economical, all the main characters have significant roles to play, the detailing of the diverse settings is far richer, the multitudinous action set-pieces are genuinely exciting, there is now the dramatic through-line provided by a love story, some of the acting is actually decent, and even the score is better.
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